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Empowering Parents - The "Trigger" Law

When children are trapped in failing schools, parents sometimes feel as though they are powerless to improve the situation. Fortunately, education reform is gaining momentum around the country, and parents have become more educated, organized, and empowered to make the best decisions for their children's education. One of the most dramatic examples of parent empowerment is the Parent Trigger, which allows parents to turn an existing failing school into a charter school, replace employees, or close the school entirely. For the first time, parents of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have invoked the parent trigger.

Since inception in 2010, the law has so far been successfully invoked once; at High Desert Elementary School in Adelanto, California. However, this was only after a heated eighteen-month legal battle. The new school is now scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

Last week, parents with students at 24th Street Elementary School presented a petition to the superintendent of LAUSD schools. Parents argued that they were doing what was best for the students, but teachers’ unions had another message. "We wish to work with you. We wish to be a team," said Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. For parents and school choice advocates, however, that is too little too late.

"The parents have been trying to change conditions there for at least the past four years," said David Phelps, a spokesman for Parent Revolution, which has been working with the parents to organize the campaign. "It's time for that to happen." 358 parents (representing 68% of the school’s students) agreed and signed the Parent Trigger petition, which will be reviewed over the next week or so. The petition asks that 24th Street Elementary be turned into a charter school, which would mean that all of the school’s current teachers would need to be replaced.

When looking at education reform, we must always keep our focus on the only special interest group that matters; children. Not unions, not teachers, not bureaucrats, but children and their actual education! If children are being poorly educated in the current system, the system must change. Later this month, school choice will be in the spotlight nation-wide as National School Choice Week kicks off. This is a series of events to bring greater awareness to the issues of education reform and school choice. As 24th Street Elementary Parent David Emory said "This is a victory for the kids, not for us, because we're here for the kids.”

well on this topici am totaly agree with you because most of the times children because of some problms just goes in trap then i thnk for helping the child we need to empowering the praents for trigger law.
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According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), which tracks the test scores of 4th through 8th graders across the country, Louisiana ranks 49th with only 18% of these students considered proficient in reading and math. This fact is particularly troubling since state and local governments spend nearly $12,000 per student per year on what can only be called a failed system.

Tomorrow, the House Ways and Means Committee will be voting to decide if H.4894 will be brought to the House floor. The bill gives parents and students greater control over their education by allowing the use of tax credits and deductions to send children to the school that best meets their needs.

Yesterday President Obama unveiled his budget for 2013. The budget is filled with higher taxes and more spending, however something is missing, The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This program grants educational opportunities to mostly poor and minority students in Washington D.C. The Heritage Foundation reported that “[t]he D.C. OSP has been highly successful. According to federally-mandated evaluations of the program, student achievement has increased, and graduation rates of voucher students have increased significantly. While graduation rates in D.C.

The school choice movement is rapidly gaining momentum in South Carolina. Last year, a school choice bill failed by just one vote in the South Carolina House of Representatives. A virtually identical bill, H. 4576, has been introduced this session and grassroots activists are determined to ensure that it passes.

Dear FreedomWorks member, As one of our 20,000 FreedomWorks members in South Carolina, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H. 4576. Introduced by Rep. Bedingfield (R-District 28), the bold legislation would usher in important school choice reforms for South Carolina and give parents greater choice in their child’s education.

In the past weekend, two more debates came and went, marking two more wasted opportunities for the Republican presidential candidates to address education reform. In an increasingly competitive global economy, finding a better way to educate future American generations is a topic that warrants serious discussion.

With important legislation that affects Pennsylvanians pending during the fall General Assembly session, and the 2012 elections just around the corner, it's vital that the grassroots be united and connected.
That's why FreedomWorks and local Tea Party groups are hosting a full day of activist education and grassroots training in the City of Brotherly Love.

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We're still full steam ahead on the ground in Pennsylvania to support the passage of SB 1. We're coming to an important milestone, and are strongly encouraging a Senate vote by June 30th.